Special Projects

Our special projects work started in June 2014 with the launch of the Sepsis study, a point prevalence study involving 80 Cardiff medical students. These projects involve a large group of medical students with the specific outcome of publication and collaboration status for participants.

The size of sepsis in Wales (2014): point prevalence study of sepsis in the acute hospital

SEPSIS is a systemic response to infection, which causes a potentially damaging inflammatory response. A patient with SEPSIS is five times more likely to die than a patient who has suffered a heart attack or stroke. Successful management of sepsis requires prompt recognition and immediate response with appropriate escalation of care to Critical Care if required.

SEPSIS in the UK is estimated to be responsible for the deaths of 37,000 people every year and to cost the NHS £2.5 billion. However, accurate data collection in the non-critical care setting is still under development in Wales and it is thought that the real number will be far higher.

This Special Project, developed and run in association with Department of Anaesthetics, had 80 medical students collecting data on the prevalence of sepsis in 4 acute hospitals in south-east Wales over 24 hours. More information will be released as data becomes available, and all involved students will be listed as collaborators in the upcoming publication.

We are currently working towards an All-Wales study in 2015 and more information will be made available here and through email when recruitment begins.